Two years ago, Vinny Desautels asked his mother Amanda Azevedo what cancer meant when she was helping cancer patients through a foundation. Azevedo, a hair stylist by profession, told him about the disease and how patients lose their hair during treatment.

“Can I grow my hair out?” he asked her and for the next two years he sported long brown locks so he could eventually donate his hair, says a Washington Post report.

Out playing with other kids, he was often teased and even called a girl because of his long hair but he always took it in the right spirit and replied “Nah. I am a boy,” his father Jason Desautels says.

This March, when Vinny’s hair grew 13 inches long, he sat on a chair in the salon where his mother works and got them chopped. His hair was nicely put in an envelope and then mailed to “Wigs for Kids”.

Little did the seven-year-old know that he will become a cancer patient himself.

As ironical as it sounds, the very same day, Vinny’s right eye developed an infection and the swelling failed to subside even over weeks, despite being treated by the family’s paediatrician. They decided to meet ophthalmologist on April 29 but the day before they noticed swelling on Vinny’s right hip. Taking him to the emergency and x-rays revealed tumor in his pelvic bone.

The next day, the ophthalmologist told them that the swelling on Vinny’s eye was a tumor. Vinny has Stage 4 aggressive cancer, and doctors reportedly suspect that it’s Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare cancer that manifests in the bone or soft tissue.

Vinny’s right eye is completely shut now and he has been informed about his condition — the second time about cancer, only differently now. Azevedo, who is six-months pregnant, is taking care of Vinny and has stopped going to work.

“As long as we’re there with a smile, telling him he’s going to be alright, he has the same attitude. Vinny is like us – an eternal optimist,” the Desautels were quoted as saying.